Today's Fun Friday post is a no brain-er. We in the States (or colonies as my UK friend Chris calls us) are celebrating our independence from Great Britain. Our former foes are now one of our biggest allies and trading partners. The dollar value of trade last year between the United States and the United Kingdom was $107.2.B

Prior to watching the fireworks, an estimated 74 million of us will participate in a barbecue or picnic. Thanks to the US Census Bureau for telling us which states produced our favorite picnic table goodies.

• Hot dogs and pork sausages - Iowa
• Steaks and burgers - Texas, Nebraska or Kansas
• Barbecue chicken - Georgia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi or Texas. Each of these states had revenue of over $1B from chicken sales
• Baked Beans - North Dakota
• Corn on the cob - Florida, California, Georgia or New York
• Potato Salad  and potato chips - Idaho or Washington
• Lettuce for your burger or salad - California
• Tomato - Florida, but Ketchup - California
• Watermelon - Georgia

The July 7 issue of Business Week Magazine has an opinion column from Jack and Suzy Welch. At the time he was promoted, Jack Welch was General Electric's youngest chairman and CEO. He is widely known for his innovative management strategies and unique leadership style. Every year he fired the bottom 10% of his management staff. In his 20 year tenure as CEO, he took GE from a market value of $14B to one of more than $410B. You can bet he made many hiring decisions along the way as well. In this column, he talks about the danger of rushing to hire and the pitfall of being so tired of interviewing that you just want to pick someone and get going on the work that needs to be done. Here are some of the mistakes to avoid when you're trying to pick the right candidate for the job:

• The candidate who seems too good to be true but has one major blemish or omission on their resume. Dig deeper to uncover whether this blemish is a show-stopper.
• Hiring a person for their prestige experience or credentials. Just because they have a degree from a top University or experience in your industry doesn't mean they are a good fit for this particular opening.
• The candidate who is "just like you". They have the same social background or language or favorite sports team. You may miss their shortcomings because you thought you knew them based on your common bond.
• The candidate who has too little runway for growth. If they've seen it all will they quickly grow bored in the assignment without an option for upward movement?
• The candidate who has no Emotional Intelligence. Someone who is not self-aware or compassionate with others won't make a good teammate or leader.

There are many different ways to deal with email overload.  I've been know to sort by person or by subject trying to figure out which ones need immediate attention. When I'm the sender, I try to use as descriptive a title as possible to help the recipient decide whether to open my message. Seth Godin has a 36 item checklist that he's recommends using before you hit the send button. Some of the things on his list are unique to entrepreneurs or marketing folks so I've reduced the list and taken some editorial license with the ones that I've outlined below. 

• Who is the email going to? If they didn't receive it, would they complain about not getting it? If they wouldn't complain, take them off of the list.
• Am I angry? If so, save as a draft and come back to it an hour later.
• Would it be better to discuss this subject in a phone call or face to face meeting?
• Am I blind copying my boss? If so, how will the recipient feel if they find out?
• Is there anything in this email that I don't want the media, the lawyers or my boss to find out? If there is, hit 'delete'!
• Is any portion of my message in all capital letters or colored red? If so, consider changing.
• Is my contact info at the bottom of the note? If not, add it.
• Could this email be shorter? If so, edit it.
• Have I attached a really large file? If so, consider an alternative way to provide access to it.
• Am I forwarding something about a virus or worldwide charity or anything that could be a hoax? Check the Snopes web site before sending
• Did I hit 'reply all'? Does everyone need to see my response?
• Am I quoting a portion of the original email that helps in understanding? Just responding 'yes' isn't helpful.
• If I had to pay 42cents to send this email, would it be worth it?

Taking a little extra time to think about the effect of your email on the recipient will go a long way to keeping your messages out of the trash folder. For some tips on clearing your own email in-basket, see my post here.

We periodically need to remind ourselves to relax and not stress out too much about work. In the Fun Friday category, I'll be posting just for fun topics, contests and questions. If you'd like to be notified by email each time I post, just fill in the box at the top right of the screen.

I love to nap. It seems like a guilty pleasure to go to sleep in the middle of the day. But I think there's a conspiracy to prevent me from enjoying my naps. I get interrupted by the phone, the doorbell or a noisy pet every time I close my eyes. Thanks to The Boston Globe for giving us this Tutorial with pictures on how to get the most of your nap time.

I read a blog post today which called innovation the CIO's secret weapon. Innovation isn't just for the "C level" suite. It should be used at every level within the corporation. I would challenge anyone to find a department, a process or a function which couldn't be improved upon or used in a different way. One of my favorite examples is bagged lettuce. A few years ago, we would have said that there was nothing new that could be done with lettuce. It was a commodity, necessary, but boring. Enter two organic farmers who were creating bags of lettuce for their personal use. They decided  that other people might like the convenience as well and started selling pre-washed lettuce in bags. Fast forward to today where bagged produce of all kinds is a multi-million dollar business.

The leader who can use their unique insight and vantage point to identify opportunities that might not be apparent to those at a higher level automatically raises their worth to the organization. Here are the strategies recommended for CIO's that you can use as well.

1. Become a student of your company. Understand your company’s markets, products, challenges and opportunities in business terms.
2. Talk about business results, not a detailed technical solution. Don't describe your idea using jargon.  Focus on how the business will benefit in  concrete financial terms.

Downsizing has upped workloads and cut into backup help, problems a vacation can exacerbate. "People have so much work to do that they tend not to go on vacation because of what they face when they get back," notes Chuck Martin, CEO of NFI Research, a Madbury, N.H., research firm.

A ComputerWorld post says that not only do people plan to check in with the office while on vacation, their managers expect it. If you are a leader who wants your staff to have some down time, lead by example. Take your own vacation. Here are some tips to minimize the impact of your absence:

• Schedule time off in advance and let your boss know.
• Finish key tasks before you leave or ensure that you have assigned someone to continue working on them.
• Send an 'out of office message' to key contacts and clients. Let them know who will provide technical and management coverage in your absence. Do the same with your voice-mail message.
• Establish an escalation and problem solving process and clearly communicate it to your staff.
• Work out a reciprocal arrangement with a peer manager to be a focal point for issues that can't be handled by the team.
• Practice lurking. If you must take your laptop or blackberry with you, use them only to monitor events. Resist the urge to jump into an issue. Don't respond to emails or voice-mails unless it's to divert a disaster. Give your team the opportunity to resolve things without you. As I mentioned in my post on delegation , this is one of the ways that your team will build confidence in their abilities.

Finally, remember that no one, including the leader should be irreplaceable. Put plans in place to ensure that your team can function without you.

One of the hardest things I had to learn as a new manager was stepping back to let my team do the work rather than roll up my sleeves and complete the tasks myself. I had just come from a lead technical position and was actually more knowledgeable than many of staff members on how to solve problems. I had to fight the urge to look over their shoulders and give advice, especially when our clients were waiting for answers. Leila Towne has a quick podcast on the three most important things to do when delegating.

1. Get over the fact that no one will do the task exactly as you would. Your team members have different strengths and will approach things differently that you would. This is okay! Delegation frees you up for other tasks that require "big picture" thinking.
2. Start small with one task and, if needed, give the person some recommendations on how to approach it.
3. Step back, don't criticize and let the person do the work.

These are some great basic guidelines for learning to delegate. In #2 above, don't tell the person how to do the task. That would be direction, not delegation, but be very clear on the results that you want to achieve.

And in #3, build in a checkpoint or two so that you have the opportunity to make corrections if the person is really floundering. Finally, provide feedback after the task is done. What was good or innovative and what could have been handled differently for better results. Providing feedback helps them build confidence in their ability and gives you confidence that you will be able to delegate more important tasks and projects successfully.

 In the high pressure environment of tight deadlines and limited resources, I believe that having a sense of humor is a critical skill for all leaders, especially first time managers.  Each team has a unique personality based on the mix of individuals that make up the team. Inside jokes and humor can play an important role in team building. Thanks to Fayyaz Qazi for providing some translations for some of the more common phrases we've heard from our bosses but would never use with our own staff.

                Phrase                                               Translation

• You've done a great job!                   More work is coming your way
• We're working on it                          We haven't started working on it
• It's open for discussion                      I"ve already decided and will tell you what to do
• Let's call a meeting to discuss            I don't have time to talk to you now
• Don't let it affect your work              Take your laptop with you on vacation
• That's a very good question               I have no idea what you're talking about 

Add the best ones you've heard (or used) in the comments.

My colleagues and I used to joke about getting management tips from the  television show "24". We would marvel at how Jack Bauer could stay on task no matter what was happening around him or to him. We shook our heads at Chloe who is a technical genius but has no people skills. Jack's antics of forcing his team to work with him by any means pale in comparison to the real-life manager who used water boarding as a team building exercise.

Details can be found in a  Washington Post article but basically, the manager asked for a volunteer (Chad) and then proceeded to have two other team members hold Chad down while the manager poured a gallon jug of water over his nose and mouth. The boss then told his team "You saw how hard Chad fought for air right there. I want you to go back inside and fight that hard to make sales." Chad is now suing his former employer.

 I have to believe that this manager didn't wake up that morning and think "I'm going to torture one of my employees today". He wanted to motivate his team and  thought that he had come up with a unique way of doing it. I find it very interesting that his team was so intimidated that they even participated in hold Chad down. Obviously this is an extreme example of poor management judgement. When you are looking for a way to motivate your team, first ask yourself if the activity would motivate you or alienate you. This might help you avoid making a huge mistake.

Here's a question that was posted on the AskMeHelpDesk discussion board:

I am the General Manager at a small hotel. I have recently promoted a member of the staff to my Assistant Mananger. She is having trouble getting the other employees to listen to her and follow her instructions. I have told her that she needs to 'be the boss' so to speak and not worry about what they think about her. She has outside relationships with these people that she does not want to give up…  If they don't do something that she asked, then she does it not thinking that I know that is what she is doing. I think that she has great potential, but short of firing all of her 'friends' I dont know what else to say to her to make her understand that having friends is ok, but at home, not work."

My Response:

This is a very tough situation for your assistant manager. Going from peer to boss is a transition which many first time managers encounter. I suspect that she is not yet confident in her new position. This may be one reason why she is doing the work for her team. She still feels comfortable in that role.

I have a few recommendations for you as her boss and for her as the new manager.

For you: Have a candid discussion with her. Let her know that you are aware of her doing the work for her team. Tell her clearly that in order to succeed she must establish boundaries with her friends.Assuming that they are doing good work, firing them is not the answer. Your assistant manager must  make a decision on how important this opportunity is for her and what she is willing to do to be successful. This is just the first challenge that she will encounter as a manager and she needs to learn how to deal with difficult situations.

For her: Meet with her team, together or individually and have a similar candid conversation with them. She should take ownership of the problem. Let them know that she has been having a hard time separating their friendship from the job requirements, but in order to be successful, she has to learn how to give out assignments. She wants to be confident that they will carry them out. Let them know that by doing their work, she hasn’t been performing her new duties as manager. Ask for their help and suggestions on how to keep work separate from their friendship.